Brammo's bikes still on streets

Sunday

Mar 10, 2013 at 2:05 AMMar 10, 2013 at 5:05 AM

I read the article in the Mail Tribune recently about Brammo Motorsports and had a question. When I first moved to the valley, Brammo was a small company making electric motorcycles. Rumor has it that Brammo bought back all their electric bikes and destroyed them. I was told the reason was they worked too well and would last forever. I saw one last summer. They were awesome. Any plans to build those again?

I read the article in the Mail Tribune recently about Brammo Motorsports and had a question. When I first moved to the valley, Brammo was a small company making electric motorcycles. Rumor has it that Brammo bought back all their electric bikes and destroyed them. I was told the reason was they worked too well and would last forever. I saw one last summer. They were awesome. Any plans to build those again?

— Handel, via email

We suspect you might be getting Brammo confused with General Motors, which axed the EV1 electric car in the 1990s, took them off the road, and then destroyed them.

We checked in with Brammo and found out that there has been no effort to take any of their bikes off the road since they began selling them in the summer of 2009.

"I can tell you 100 percent that is not correct," said Brian Wismann, director of product development.

He said there still are large numbers of Brammo motorcycles scooting around the country that were purchased in 2009.

Brammo previously built electric cars, many of which are still around.

Wismann did confirm that the bikes were designed to run for a long time, and the company strives to make them reliable.

As an aside, the Brammo bikes use a lithium-ion battery pack, which is similar to the batteries used in cellphones and on Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.

Wismann said that unlike the Boeing batteries, Brammo's have been extremely reliable.